I quit.
Well, it's a little bit more complicated than that, but I was taught in journalism school not to bury my lead. The essential thrust of this column is that, well, I'm going into semi-retirement. I've decided to stop writing weekly reviews for The Fourth Rail. I've been doing this for almost 10 years, and it's gotten to the point where I just don't want to be doing it anymore. It takes a lot of time and a lot of discipline, and as I get older, I'm growing shorter on both.
Basically, I started out doing this as a whim on Usenet in 1996. I never really thought it would lead to me doing this for a living for two years or running a reviews website for just over four. It's not that there aren't books out there worth talking about. Even though I am a bit underwhelmed by a lot of what Marvel and DC proper are doing these days, there are a ton of books I absolutely love from Vertigo, Image, Oni, Dark Horse, etc., etc. My monthly comics budget, even pared down almost entirely to graphic novels, remains in three digits every month. I've just sort of lost my enthusiasm for the analysis of these books, and I feel like I owe it to the folks who put the time into creating them, not to mention the fans who have been coming here to read my reviews, to be fired up about my own writing. And over the past few years, that fire has been very much off and on, which explains the changes in format, the changes in scheduling and indeed most of the other changes in style that y'all have seen from me of late.
This is not really goodbye completely. Though I can't keep the weekly grind up, I still have the desire to write on a fairly regular basis. I'll be devoting plenty of time to my blog (Inside Joke Theatre), and Don has agreed that I can stay on at Fourth Rail as a sort of "contributing guest." For that matter, I've been "syndicating" Snap Judgments to Antigravity, a free monthly in New Orleans, and I'll still be doing something monthly for Leo McGovern, editor in chief of Antigravity, which will make its way to the site as well. So expect the occasional review, maybe a return to Down the Line from time to time, maybe even new stuff like interviews or more extended pieces like my "Backtracking" features. Just don't expect them anytime soon, because I'm taking a vacation from writing about comics for a few months. I'm gonna finally read some of the books (y'know, without pictures) that have been gathering dust on my shelves for the past three or four years. Catch up on some comics series that I've been wanting to revisit, like Suicide Squad and Hitman and Preacher. Spend some nights with my wife and daughter where I don't retreat to my office to write while they're still up. That kind of thing.
I won't lie and say that I don't have some guilt about quitting. Truthfully, I've considered quitting before, and one of the factors that always kept me in was a sense of duty to the folks who sent me comp copies for review. I figured that I should at least get all of those comps reviewed before I quit. But that's pretty near impossible, and the piles of review copies just kept getting bigger and my enthusiasm kept waxing, and I realized that I was just going to have to "rip the band-aid off" and do it if I ever really wanted to quit. If you are one of the many publishers or creators who sent me something for review, thank you for the copies over the years. If you're one of the many publishers or creators still waiting for a review of material sent more recently, I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I just don't think I'd be doing anyone any favors by pushing on to review when I'm not excited about doing it. And while I'm not making any promises, I will be reading everything sent to me, and no doubt talking about some of it in my sporadic columns to come.
So that's it. I could spend a great deal of time here on thanking everyone who has supported me over the years, but honestly, I'd leave out more names than I remembered. For everyone who has supported me, whether it be with a kind email, comics for review, a friendly face at a convention or even a well-considered critical email that made me reconsider something, thank you. You're the reason I kept doing this as long as I did. I do want to specifically thank Don, who has been my good friend and reviewing partner for close to 10 years, for hanging in there with me throughout three or four different venues and pushing me when I needed it.
I'm stepping out, but I'm leaving the door open. There is the slightest possibility that after a month or two off, I'll decide that I really want to keep reviewing and I'll be back doing weekly reviews. There is a much stronger possibility that after a couple months of time off, I'll be back to do monthly features and reviews. I don't think I can entirely leave... writing about comics is in my blood at this point.
I would also like to leave with one last plea for folks to look beyond DC and Marvel when making their comics selections. It is a brutal, brutal market out there, and even the publishers you might think of as "safe" are probably struggling in ways you don't see. Support the small press and the smaller publishers and hell, even the marginal books at DC and Marvel, by being open to new stuff as well as familiar characters and creators. You'll be rewarded with great stories you didn't know existed and creators who will become your favorites for years to come.
Thanks again, folks. I'm keeping this email address for the foreseeable future, so y'all can feel free to email me, and I'll see y'all around the Internet.
